


Triple Chocolate Valentine

by rockymountainvixen



Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons), Trollhunters - Daniel Kraus & Guillermo del Toro
Genre: Chocolate, Cooking Catastrophe, F/F, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Offscreen Jlaireby, Romance, Strickbach, Valentine's Day, barbmura
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-27 23:57:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17776667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rockymountainvixen/pseuds/rockymountainvixen
Summary: All Nomura wants for Valentine's day is to impress her girlfriend with the perfect dessert. What can go wrong? Everything.





	Triple Chocolate Valentine

**Author's Note:**

> A quick Valentine's day story inspired by my own misadventures in cake making. Everything that happens to Nomura while she was baking has happened to me at some point, but not all on the same day.

“You know Nomura, if you’re struggling, there’s no shame in asking your girlfriend’s son for help,”

 

Nomura managed to glare at Strickler while pouring the last of the cake batter into the round, parchment lined pan.

 

“Bite me Strickler.”

 

“Do mein ears deceive me?” Otto walked into the kitchen and came to Strickler’s side “One of my oldest friends, flirting with my boyfriend?” he laid a hand across his chest and adopted the most melodramatic expression as possible “And on Valentine’s day no less?”

 

One of her eyes twitched while she slid the filled pans into the oven. The three of them had been friends for almost as long as she could remember, that still didn’t stop her from wanting to murder them every other week.

 

“Don’t you two have somewhere to be?”

 

“Oh we still have several hours before the play starts,” Strickler said, looking delighted at the idea of needling her for that entire time.

 

“Nevertheless,” Otto cut in while putting on his coat “We should get going if we want to make it to the city on time,”

 

The two of them made their way to the door, but they couldn’t resist giving a few more jibes before they left.

 

“Do try to keep your Valentines activities with the good Doctor confined to appropriate areas of the apartment,”

 

“Ja, I don’t think that Dr. Lake would appreciate a repeat of the time we walked in on the two of you on the couch,”

 

The glare Nomura threw at them could have melted steel.

 

“Out,”

 

Mercifully, the two of them left at last. Nomura let out a deep breath, now that those two headaches were gone she could focus on the task at hand. Over a week ago she and Barbara had decided that for Valentine’s day they would have dinner at the apartment Nomura shared with Strickler and Otto. With the aforementioned duo going out to dinner and spending their evening at the performing arts center.

 

She glanced around at the empty bowls and sacks of sugar littering the counter. Barbara had agreed to pick up take out from their favorite French restaurant, while Nomura had volunteered to make their dessert.

 

Reaching into the fridge, Nomura pulled out two packages of butter and set them on the counter. In hindsight that had been a terrible decision.

 

Setting the butter aside to warm up, she poured the heavy cream into a bowl with the coco powder and sugar and got out the beaters. Honestly she wouldn’t be so worked up about this if Barbara's own son hadn’t made her a freaking Swedish Princess cake for her last birthday.

 

Now she was running into a problem, she had been beating the cream for a solid ten minutes and it was still completely runny. Not good, that was not good at all. If Nomura couldn’t get the cream to thicken she wouldn’t have the chocolate whipped cream to fill the cake with. Thinking quickly, she popped the bowl into the fridge, hopefully that was the right thing to do for whipped cream.

 

Right on queue the oven timer went off, signaling that the cakes were done. Taking a break from the filling, Nomura pulled the pans out and set them on the stove to cool.

 

Now for the frosting, Nomura got a sugar syrup started on the stove and separated out some egg whites into another bowl before whipping those as well. Just when she thought things were going smoothly she tried to add the sugar syrup to the eggs. The end result of that was hard strings of sugar wrapped around the beaters and liquid egg whites. Resisting the urge to fling the ruined buttercream out the window, Nomura poured the contents of the bowl into the trash and started again.

 

Two more times with the same result and Nomura was ready to scream. Anxiously, she glanced at the clock, there was still time to fix this before Barbara arrived, not a lot of time, but some.

 

She opened the book to double check the recipe. Of course, she had been heating up the sugar too high. Nomura tried again, this time heating the sugar to the right temperature. Mercifully, the syrup came together with the egg whites this time.

 

The butter and vanilla got tossed in the bowl with the mixer still running. Soon mounds and mounds of fluffy, white icing built up in the bowl.

 

Taking a breath, she looked at all that she had finished so far. While she was waiting for the cakes to cool she pulled the bowl out of the fridge, hoping that the whipped cream would turn out this time.

 

Cupid must have been smiling down on her because this time the whipped cream thickened up beautifully.

 

She turned back to the stove and placed a hand on one of the cakes, perfectly cool to the touch. After slipping them out of their pans, Nomura alternated between stacking the layers and topping them with the chocolate cream until she had three layers of cake to two layers of cream.

 

Once that was done she put a small amount of buttercream into a separate bowl and began the crumb coat, a useful trick she had learned from Jim.

 

Crumb coat completed, Nomura slid the cake platter into the fridge to chill. While she was waiting for the crumb coat to set she could make the ganache topping. Only she couldn’t because she had used up all the heavy cream making the chocolate filling.

 

Fuck.

 

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

 

Nomura bit her lip and looked at the clock, if she hurried she could run to the store and back in just enough time to finish the cake before Barbara showed up.

 

Hastily, she grabbed her keys and wallet before running out the door. Twenty minutes later she walked back in holding a carton of heavy cream, having completed her grocery trip in record time.

 

Eyeing the clock she pulled out the cake and covered it with the rest of the buttercream as fast as she dared. Once that was done she heated the cream and chocolate to make the ganache, waiting until it was cooled to the perfect consistency to pour on top of the cake.

 

Nomura placed her finished product on the counter with no small amount of pride. There had certainly been some bumps along the way, but she had done it; the perfect cake for her first Valentine’s day with Barbara, and with twenty minutes to spare.

 

While she waited for Barbara, she cleaned and tidied up the kitchen, removing all traces of the long, difficult cake baking process.

 

Soon enough, there was a gentle knock at the door. Smoothing her dress one final time, Nomura went to let her girlfriend in.

 

Barbara’s smiling face greeted her “Happy Valentine’s day! Someone order Coq au Vin for two?” she said while gleefully holding up a paper take out bag in one hand and offering a bouquet of pink roses with the other.

 

Nomura took the offered flowers and stepped aside to let Barbara in “That sounds delicious, ”

 

They sat down at the small table and started tucking into their delicious meal “So is Jim doing anything for today,?”

 

Barbara perked up at the mention of her son “Nothing too crazy, he and Toby and Claire went over to her house to decorate cupcakes and have a movie marathon,”

 

Nomura raised an eyebrow at that “And her parents are ok with having the boys over with her?”

 

“Of course, they’re at home to,” Barbara said with a smirk.

 

“Spending Valentine’s day with your boyfriend, your girlfriend, and her parents, sounds fun,”

 

The two of them settled into comfortable conversation revolving around work, family, and friends. Nomura mentally patted herself on the back, everything was going off without a hitch.

 

”Hope you saved room for dessert,”

 

Barbara leaned forward with anticipation “Oh, I’m excited now, what did you make?”

 

Nomura retrieved the cake platter from the fridge and set it down in from of her “Devil’s food cake filled with chocolate whipped cream, topped with italian meringue buttercream and dark chocolate ganache,”

 

“Fancy,”

 

Sliding the large knife into the pillowy frosting, Nomura congratulated herself once again on pulling off the perfect Valentine’s day dessert. She lifted the slice off the platter, only to unleash a flood of dark brown fluid from the cake.

 

“Is it a lava cake?” Barbara asked, confused by the chocolaty flood and Nomura’s stunned silence.

 

That’s when it hit her. The perfect filling, a flawless frosting, and picturesque topping weren’t worth a damn if the cake was raw on the inside.

 

She face planted on the table, all those hours of work, for nothing.

 

“Nomura, are you ok?”

 

“....that’s batter…. the cake is raw, I’m sorry,”

 

Barbara gently took Nomura’s hands in hers “Are you ok? It’s just a cake,”

 

Nomura sat up and met Barbara’s eyes “I know, it’s just that….I’ve never been as serious with anyone as I am with you, and I wanted to show how much you mean to me,”

 

“Hey, it doesn’t matter if the cake isn’t perfect or if our first Valentine’s day is a complete disaster,”

 

“Gee thanks,” Nomura deadpanned.

 

“What matters is that we’re going to be together for every Valentine’s day from now on,”

 

“Do you really see us in it for the long haul?”

 

“You better believe it, and besides,” Barbara dragged a finger through the chocolate puddle before licking it clean “I love cake batter,”

 

Nomura gave her a very predatory grin “Is that so?” Before Barbara could react she dabbed her finger in the batter and bopped her girlfriend on the nose.

 

Barbara smiled back at her, ignoring the batter on her face “Since you’re in such a naughty mood, how about we make use of the other surprise that I brought,”

 

“Oh?”

 

Reaching into her bag, Barbara pulled out a creepy looking clown doll “I got this out of the Halloween decorations, do you want to go rig it so it pops out at Walter and Otto when they walk into their bedroom?”

 

Just when she thought she couldn't be any more in love with the red-headed doctor “Have I ever told you you’re the best girlfriend in the world?”

 

“No, but that’s sweet of you to say," Barbara stood up and walked around the table to plant a kiss on her girlfriend's cheek "Happy Valentine’s day Nomura,”

 

Nomura returned the kiss with one of her own on the lips “Happy Valentine’s day to you to, now let’s go set up that doll,”

 


End file.
